Russia is suggesting a regulation that mandates all non-nationals in Moscow to download a tracking application on their devices.

By utilizing a mobile application that all non-nationals will be required to install on their smartphones, the Russian authorities will obtain the following data:

• Current residence
• Fingerprint data
• Facial photograph
• Real-time geographical location tracking

This is not the first occurrence of such a measure. Qatar implemented it in 2022 during the World Cup:

“Upon agreeing to the conditions of these applications, administrators will gain full authority over users’ devices,” he added. “All private content, the capability to modify it, distribute it, and extract it, along with information from other applications on your device, will be under their control. Administrators will even possess the capability to unlock users’ devices from afar.”